Cubah Cornwallis
Jamaican nurse
Cubah Cornwallis (died 1848) (often spelled Coubah, Couba, Cooba or Cuba a slave name variant of the Twi day name Akua meaning a girl born on Wednesday) was a nurse or "doctress" and Obeah woman who lived in the colony of Jamaica during the late 18th and 19th century.
Early life
Little is known of her early life although records indicate that she was originally enslaved, belonging to Captain William Cornwallis, brother of Charles, Earl Cornwallis. The details of her release from slavery are also not known although there are references suggesting that she and Captain Cornwallis were lovers.
When freed she was appointed by Cornwallis as his housekeeper whilst he remained in Jamaica. On his departure, she settled permanently in Port Royal and began her career treating sailors for the many and varied diseases and injuries they sustained. She purchased a small house which she converted into a combination of rest home, hotel and hospital.
Famous patients
Cubah became so well known for her treatment of the sick that in 1780 when Horatio Nelson, then a captain, fell ill with dysentery during an expedition to Nicaragua, he was taken to her by Admiral Parker, the commander-in-chief of the Royal Naval forces in Jamaica.
Later she was entrusted with the treatment of Prince William Henry, later William IV when he was stationed in the West Indies. The Prince was so grateful to Cubah that many years later he told the story to his wife, Queen Adelaide. The Queen was so grateful that she sent Cubah a dress that was so expensive and beautiful that Cubah refused to wear it.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cubah Cornwallis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.